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Carly Pearce hopes you’re happy now… but if you’re a liar, liar, she’ll set your truck on fire.
The Grammy-winning country star performed a few of her biggest hits when she took the stage at the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival on Saturday night (May 2). The star-studded event returned to Moody Center in Austin, Texas. Pearce opened her set with “I Hope You’re Happy Now,” the 2020 duet she debuted with Lee Brice. The hit single appeared on Pearce’s self-titled sophomore studio album. Pearce wrote the song with Luke Combs, Randy Ennis Schlappi and Jonathan Singleton, portraying the aftermath of a breakup and wishing one another well.
Pearce switched gears with the next song in her set, “truck on fire,” a blazing anthem from her latest studio record, hummingbird. That project also included “country music made me do it,” “we don’t fight anymore” with Chris Stapleton, “rock paper scissors” and more. The Kentucky-born artist wrote the fiery revenge anthem with Justin Ebach and Lady A’s Charles Kelley.
Pearce, a former iHeartCountry On the Verge Artist, shared an empowering message with the arena audience before she performed her emotional final ballad of the evening. She performed “What He Didn’t Do,” a heartbreaking, post-divorce single that she wrote with Emily Shackelton and Ashley Gorley. It ends with the singer knowing that when she finds the right partner, “he’ll treat me right, put me first, be a man of his word.”
“What He Didn’t Do” appeared on 29: Written in Stone, Pearce’s 2021 record that also included “Diamondback,” “Next Girl,” “Dear Miss Loretta,” “29” and more. Pearce said in a recent interview on Rolling Stone’s Nashville Now podcast that her fifth studio album is “done,” (she has not announced a release date as of publication time). Her producer, Ben West, “captured, to me, the essence of who I am. I kept going back to 29 because I feel 29 was me at my core. To me, this feels like 29: Part Two. So far, Pearce has released “Dream Come True,” “Church Girl,” “If I Don’t Leave I’m Gonna Stay” with Riley Green and “You Can Have Him” as she teases her next chapter.
Luke Bryan, Kane Brown, Parker McCollum, Riley Green, Shaboozey, Dylan Scott, Russell Dickerson, Gretchen Wilson, Chase Matthew and Lauren Alaina, plus special guest George Birge, made up the star-studded lineup of the 2026 iHeartCountry Festival. It was all hosted again by iHeartRadio’s Bobby Bones.
The 2026 iHeartCountry Festival is streaming live on Disney+ and Hulu. If you missed the show (or just want to relive the experience), you can replay the festival for 23 hours on Sunday (May 3) only on Hulu.
Check back with iHeartCountry for a photo gallery of red carpet looks, more performance recaps, backstage moments and other unforgettable highlights from this year’s iHeartCountry Festival.